Pavel Kraus “Enigma”
Stephen Romano
This event has ended.
The Czech-born, New York artist is known for richly textured and expressive compositions employing a wide array of materials and procedures. Kraus’s dense and intense works include abstract encaustic paintings with obsessively layered surfaces, assemblage sculptures and figurative drawings, as well as luminous constructions in glass and painted Mylar.
Among the show’s highlights are selections from his “Offering / Redemption” series of meticulously wrought marble sculptures in the shape of bifurcated eggs, inlaid with semi-precious stones, using the ancient pietre dure technique.
Featuring more than 30 pieces spanning the artist’s four-decade career, “Enigma” is curated by noted critic and author David Ebony, former managing editor and currently a contributing editor of Art in America. Kraus’s works have an archeological feel like artifacts from some long-lost civilization. In his catalogue essay, Ebony writes,
“The enigmatic works that Kraus has produced over the years reflect an esoteric examination of personal truths as well as universal veracity, which spans the ages from prehistory and antiquity to the present day.”
“Enigma” focuses on Kraus’s output of recent years, especially his series of “Roman Wedding” paintings and sculptures, centered on the theme of a mysterious marriage ceremony. Set in a mythical time and place of the artist’s invention, the ceremony is at once sacred and profane.
Also on view is a selection of Kraus’s earlier pieces from the 1980s and early ’90s, in a style critics have referred to as “Gothic Minimalism.” Reflecting the artist’s Czech heritage, these paintings and sculptures in beeswax, lead, wood and cloth merge the spare forms of American Minimalism with unorthodox materials and processes that recall the Medieval traditions of Eastern European alchemy.
Media
Schedule
from September 04, 2014 to October 11, 2014
Opening Reception on 2014-09-04 from 18:00 to 21:00